A number of wireless devices have been developed to meet the needs of an increasingly mobile society. Devices such as telephones which were once hard-wired to a single location are now portable. Traditionally, when a customer requested telephone service, the customer was assigned a telephone number that was operable from a fixed location such as the customer's home or office. However, when a wireless customer requests service, the wireless customer is assigned a number which is operable over a large geographic area.
Wireless service is available virtually throughout the United States. The geographic area of the United States has been divided into geographic regions commonly referred to as Basic Trading Areas ("BTA's") by Rand McNally & Company. The Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") uses the BTA's to define wireless coverage areas throughout the United States. The FCC issues a license for each BTA to permit a wireless service provider to operate within a specified frequency block within the BTA. A license permits a single service provider to operate within the BTA's frequency block and to serve wireless customers with billing addresses within the BTA. A single service provider may hold multiple licenses and may operate in multiple BTA's.
The wireless service provider for a particular BTA determines the calling features or services offered to customers within the BTA. Different service providers may offer different services and even the same service provider may offer different services in different BTA's. Not only may the services differ from BTA to BTA, but the tax rate for wireless service may differ from BTA to BTA.
To apply the proper tax rate to the customer's bill, the BTA which contains the customer's address must be identified. The BTA could be identified manually by a customer service representative or by a computer program using some type of lookup table or map. However, in either case there is room for error. If the address supplied by the customer is in error or is incorrectly recorded by the customer service representative, the correct BTA will not be identified. In addition to the possibility of human error, if the address is in a new development and is not yet included in the table or map, a BTA will not be identified. Thus, there is a need for a reliable method for identifying the BTA which contains a customer's address.
Once the correct BTA is identified, a BTA identifier may be included in the customer's file. The service provider may use the BTA identifiers to determine customers with billing addresses located in a selected BTA. If a service provider intends to offer additional calling features to customers in a selected BTA, those customers in the BTA can be targeted to receive information regarding the additional features.
In addition to relating a customer's billing address to a BTA, relating a customer's operating location to a BTA or other geographic region is also useful. When a customer reports a problem it is helpful to identify the BTA in which the customer was located when the problem occurred. If a customer reported that a calling feature was inoperable, it would be helpful to know whether the customer was in a BTA where the feature was offered when the problem occurred. It is also useful to relate a customer's operating location to a geographic region defined by the operating range of an antenna or other piece of equipment. By monitoring the locations of customer problems, a service provider may become aware of developing trends and may be able to take preventive action. For example, the occurrence of a number of problems in close proximity to an antenna or other piece of equipment may indicate an equipment problem.
To relate a customer's billing address or operating location to a BTA or other geographic region, the operating location and the geographic region may be geographically encoded or geocoded. To geocode an address or operating location, the address or description of the operating location is converted into longitude and latitude. A geocoder is a program module which converts a street address into longitude and latitude. An example of a geocoder is P.A.C.E. (Probabalistic Address Coding Engine) from Matchware Technologies, Inc., 15212 Dino Drive, Burtonsville, Md. 20866. To geocode a region, the boundary points of the region are converted into a plurality of longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates. Libraries of geocoded data are available which contain longitude and latitude for street addresses and for geographic regions such as BTA's or zip code zones. Examples of geocoded data libraries include Dynamap/2000 Street Network File from Geographic Data Technologies, 11 Lafayette Street, Labanon, N.H. 03766 and BTA/MTA Boundaries U.S. from MapInfo Corp., One Global View, Troy, N.Y. 12180. Once a location and a region are described by longitude and latitude, a comparison may be made between the longitude and latitude for the location, and the longitude and latitude for the region to determine whether the location is located within the geographic region.
Longitude and latitude for a location may be obtained for a street address using a geocoder such as P.A.C.E. However, there may be times when a street address is unavailable. For example, in a wireless environment, a customer may not know the street address for a location where the customer experienced a problem because the customer may be operating the wireless device in an unfamiliar location when the problem occurs. Without a street address, a conventional geocoder may be unable to resolve the customer's location into longitude and latitude. Although the customer may be unable to provide a complete street address for the location, the customer may be able to provide a description of a nearby location such as an intersection or a landmark. If the customer can provide a description of a nearby intersection or landmark, then longitude and latitude for the intersection or landmark may be obtained. The longitude and latitude for the nearby intersection or landmark are used to approximate the customer's location and may be used to identify the BTA which contains the customer's location.
There may be times when an address cannot be resolved into longitude and latitude. For example, if the customer provides a street address, but the street address is incorrect, then a geocoder may be unable to identify longitude and latitude for the address. If the determination that an address cannot be resolved into longitude and latitude can be made in real time, the determination would be more useful. For example, if the determination that the address cannot be resolved into longitude and latitude can be made while the customer is still available, then the customer can immediately correct or supplement the address. The customer may be able to correct an incorrect address or to supplement the address provided with a description of a nearby intersection or a landmark.
Once longitude and latitude for a location or for a point approximating the location is identified, then the BTA or other geographic region which contains the location may be identified. If the identification of the geographic region which contains the location is made in real time, the identification is more useful. In the account activation example, if the address provided by the customer is resolved into longitude and latitude, but does not identify a BTA served by the wireless service provider, then there is probably an error in the address. If the identification of the BTA which contains the address can be made while the customer is still available, then the customer can immediately correct or supplement the address. In the case of problem reporting, if the BTA or other geographic region which contains the problem location can be determined quickly, the problem is more likely to be resolved during the initial problem report, eliminating the need for a subsequent customer call-back. Real time determination also provides valuable information for system analysis and resource allocation.
Accordingly, in the field of geographic coding, there is a need for a system and method for identifying geographic coordinates for a location or for a geographic point approximating the location in real time.
There is also a need for a system and method for identifying the geographic region of a geographic area which contains a geographic point.
There is an additional need for a system and method for identifying the geographic region of a geographic area which contains the geographic point in real time.